Happy Halloween 2009

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Magic is fun!

State of the Blogosphere

# Bloggers use Twitter far more than the average person and micro-blogging is changing blogging habits
# Blogging is becoming more mainstream and influential, but not replacing traditional media
# More bloggers are making money, but most don’t make any
# Most bloggers are “hobbyists” and are driven by personal fulfillment rather than financial gain.

This according to Technorati and quoted by OnlineJournalismBlog.

Wednesday's Word: Nada

Nada, noun, pronounced Nah-Dah.

Of Spanish origination. Acceptably good Spanglish.

Def: Nothing.

Usage: For this Wednesday's Word, I have absolutely nada.

A New Day

Nobody die today, please...

Just sayin...

Rest In Peace Paul Carpenter

The 92 year Old Man passed away yesterday.

He'd been living with his nephew after his last stay in New York.

I got to speak with him on Saturday to say goodbye.

God Bless Him!

Emotional Overload Weekend

It's been a TOO emotionally grueling weekend... Besides the doggy (see post below) and going into it every time I run into a "dog person" neighbor with tears and hugs... (Everyone seems completely convinced that I did everything right with him... And the support has been amazing from everyone, including you bloggers).

That 92 year old ex-neighbor man that I've been checking on at least every week for 12 years is now near death... Home hospice care. He is still in control of his mind, but was too weak to talk to me yesterday... But they held the phone to his ear so I could tell him goodbye and all... I know he pretty much wanted to die after he was moved to his nephew's house in Ohio and lost all his independence for good... We had talked about it many times. But that call was emotional too....

I was truly glad to be there at the AIDS Quilt yesterday to support my friend... But that whole AIDS period was painful to re-experience as I had lost 45 friends and co-workers in show business over those years... I found several friend's panels were in the Quilt that was displayed in Rockland...

All this emotion!!!... I wish I were Vulcan...

Right now as I hit send is pretty much the exact time that Oscar would be asking for his evening walk... like clockwork... I feel like I should go out there and do the walk now alone...

This is gonna take a LOT of painful adjustment for me...

Back to work tomorrow...

Thanks Everyone!

Thanks for the comments and support regarding my doggy in the post below... I keep crying. And am running into fellow dog owners on the street that knew him and are asking where he is... Dog people can especially commiserate this grief...!

Rest in Peace Little Buddy!

Oscar Madison 

July 26, 2003 - October 23, 2009

"The best little doggy in the whole wide world!"

20th Annual Cabaret Convention

This was a couple weeks ago and I didn't want to rain on anyone's parade. Hence this later post...

There have been 20 New York Cabaret Conventions put on by the Mabel Mercer Foundation. Happy 20th!

I must admit, I've never been a fan of this whole dreary concept...

This is not a convention. And the intimate cabaret artform is totally antithetical to this giant staged gaudy presentation...

The Cabaret Convention has always been an oxymoron of sorts, IMHO...

In the beginning, the concept included ample cheap ($10?) seats for performers and students to come and study their peers... That important element was dropped years ago...

In the beginning, this thing was seven days long. And included workshops and symposia. That was all dropped.

This year it will be three nights only... And began with creator Donald Smith making a speech about how the finances were such that without the help of a few patrons, there would have been none this year... Helluva way to start a show there Donald!

Meanwhile, there's a highfalutin  "Cabaret Cruise" that gets plugged regularly with the same coterie of performers and supporters... No $10 seats for performers made available here either... And it reeks of bourgeoisie arrogance.

Each evening goes on for painful HOURS... (HOURS!)

The concept of taking intimate nuanced performers that work in intimate cabaret rooms and put them on a giant stage seems to defeat the whole initial purpose of the art form... A film series might be a more intimate and appropriate venue to capture the intimacy... No?

Still... Sidney Myer tears up the place with his off beat comical and witty crowd pleasing. Big bold Broadway performers like Brian Stokes Mitchell and Karen Mason work the best in this huge theatrical venue... And Marilyn Maye has an innate star power that fills all rooms, big and small...

Long ego driven Acceptance Speeches just don't belong here... Especially when colleagues talk about all the winner has done for the community but doesn't ever let the audience in on what exactly the winner actually did for the community? Or for anybody.

Snore.

Wednesday's Word: GMAS

GMAS

Acronym; for give me a second.

Usage: Still on fone, GMAS.

Sidekick Update

FINALLY got my contacts back in T-Mobile Sidekick. Stay tuned for To-Do, Notes, Calendar, Photos and Bookmarks & previously downloaded apps!... Let's see how long that takes now that they have a recovery tool and system in place... Also if the system is stable enough to keep this data without future loss. Nice to have the Desktop Interface back, too.

ICP

Saw my now favorite ICP exhibit (ever!) at the International Center for Photography on Friday. Exhibition titled: Dress Codes.

The reason? The rich combination of varied media on display here: Collage, Claymation, fashion photography, computer animation, Polaroids, b&w and color, and more...

So much variety.

Something for everyone!

 
1133 Avenue of the Americas
at 43rd Street
New York, NY 10036 |
Admission
 
General: $12
Students and Seniors: $8
ICP Members: Free
Children under 12: Free
Voluntary Contribution on
Fridays, 5:00–8:00 pm

Phone 212.857.0000

Hours
Tues–Thurs: 10:00 am–6:00 pm
Friday: 10:00 am–8:00 pm
Sat–Sun: 10:00 am–6:00 pm
The Museum Galleries are closed on Mondays, holidays, and during installation.

The Monday Walk to Work

Yup...

It's Monday!

That's me walking to work!


Gotta get moving...

Hope you all have a great day!



Stole the graphic from Scott!

Happy Birthday Anita O'Day

The Latest on the Sidekick

Updated: 10/17/2009 2:00 PM PDT

Microsoft Update on Sidekick Data Restoration

The Danger / Microsoft team has continued to work around the clock and is conducting its last round of rigorous tests before making the restoration process available to you. We’re making solid progress in restoring content and will update you tomorrow with additional timing and instructions for recovery.

This data restoration effort is only necessary for customers who lost data from their Sidekick devices. We appreciate your ongoing patience.

Make it a Fun Saturday

The fun theory...

Friday: On My Mind

Here's what's on my mind at the moment...

* It's Friday... Thanks Gods... I'm pretty wiped after a week of work!

* OK, I've decided that government shouldn't recognize marriage at all. Any marriage. Period. Just civil unions. All marriages are automatically legal civil unions. Civil unions are civil unions... Everyone's equal. That would do it...

* Installed the Chrome Browser on my computer at work today. That old Windows XP (2002) was recently reimaged and got a new circuit board. It's now just like it was when it came out of the box in 2002. (A long time ago in computer time). Equipped with IE 6 as a browser, virtually every site I try to visit flags a warning that the browser is too old. Chrome is simple, takes up little memory, and is performing much faster with everything so far, including Outlook email... But, maybe it was just having a good day?

* Rain predicted for the whole weekend... As two, (2!) Noreasters rampage across the area... Fine. I have plenty yet to accomplish indoors!

* Reviews of Bye Bye Birdie Broadway revival have been pretty deadly. Ben Brantley's New York Times review is a hatchet job.

* I need a glue stick.

* Meeting a slew of friends after work today for an outing to a local photography museum. Will blog about it eventually, I'm sure... Hopefully this weekend... I'm falling behind in blog posts. This always happens this time of year...

* I didn't buy the whole "balloon boy" thing from the get-go. In fact, I refused to turn on the TV when I got the first email blast yesterday... Seemed like a publicity stunt to me... And that was before I learned this was a television family... P.T. Barnum's favorite quote about suckers immediately came to mind...

* I wish my Sidekick were working 100% and all the data was restored so I could decide whether to stay with it, or not. A colleague switched to an Android Network smartphone and is delighted... He even managed to load in his CVS barcode so he never has to carry the plastic card anymore... Kinda cool.

* Am almost out of dental floss.

* Much weekend rest needed. Badly.

This Just In, TWO WEEKS Later...

Microsoft Confirms Data Recovery for Sidekick Users

Data Restoration to Begin as Soon as Possible for Affected Customers

Dear T-Mobile Sidekick customers,

On behalf of Microsoft, I want to apologize for the recent problems with the Sidekick service and give you an update on the steps we have taken to resolve these problems.

We are pleased to report that we have recovered most, if not all, customer data for those Sidekick customers whose data was affected by the recent outage. We plan to begin restoring users’ personal data as soon as possible, starting with personal contacts, after we have validated the data and our restoration plan. We will then continue to work around the clock to restore data to all affected users, including calendar, notes, tasks, photographs and high scores, as quickly as possible.

We now believe that data loss affected a minority of Sidekick users. If your Sidekick account was among those affected, please continue to log into these forums for the latest updates about when data restoration will begin, and any steps you may need to take. We will work with T-Mobile to post the next update on data restoration timing no later than Saturday.

We have determined that the outage was caused by a system failure that created data loss in the core database and the back-up. We rebuilt the system component by component, recovering data along the way. This careful process has taken a significant amount of time, but was necessary to preserve the integrity of the data.

We will continue working closely with T-Mobile to restore user data as quickly as possible. We are eager to deliver the level of reliable service that our incredibly loyal customers have become accustomed to, and we are taking immediate steps to help ensure this does not happen again. Specifically, we have made changes to improve the overall stability of the Sidekick Service and initiated a more resilient backup process to ensure that the integrity of our database backups is maintained.

Once again, we apologize for this situation and the inconvenience that it has created. Please know that we are working all-out to resolve this situation and restore the reliability of the service.


Sincerely,
Roz Ho
Corporate Vice President
Premium Mobile Experiences, Microsoft Corporation

Wednesday's Word: Blah-Blah

Blah-Blah, noun

Talking too much. Too much information.

Usage: He/She does too much blah-blah.

T-Mobile Sidekick Infuriation Continues

Apologies to my regular readers who may be sick of me moaning about the Sidekick... If you are one, ignore this post...

Despite T-Mobile's claims: "We have made significant progress this past weekend, restoring services to virtually every customer."

Well not me... I still have NO web connection...

Another friend has had the web intermittently through the day, but all new data he has inputted keeps getting lost...

He also has had forced resets...

That is another thing that press coverage seems to overlook... These mysterious resets that have caused much data loss. The removal of the battery had NOTHING to do with it in many cases! THEY did it!

The NYTimes coverage on this has been disappointing...

T-Mobile rejected my offer to remain with them and switch to an Android phone without cost to me... They refused...

See my post below for many, many comments that embellish the whole situation...

Infuriation Continues!

Three Words

Three Day Weekend.

Sidekick Disaster

Tech Crunch

T-Mobile Sidekick Disaster: Danger’s Servers Crashed, And They Don’t Have A Backup

by Jason Kincaid

Wow. T-Mobile and Danger, the Microsoft-owned subsidiary that makes the Sidekick, has just announced that they’ve likely lost all user data that was being stored on Microsoft’s servers due to a server failure. That means that any contacts, photos, calendars, or to-do lists that haven’t been locally backed up are gone. Apparently if you don’t turn off your Sidekick and make sure its battery doesn’t run out you can salvage what’s currently stored on the device, otherwise you’re out of luck: Microsoft/Danger is describing the likelihood of recovering the data from their servers as “extremely low”.

T-Mobile Sidekick users have been suffering from a major outage all week, and that issue apparently hasn’t been resolved either.

This goes beyond FAIL, face-palm, or any of the other internet memes we’ve come to associate with incompetence. The fact that T-Mobile and/or Microsoft Danger don’t have a redundant backup is simply inexcusable, especially given the fact that the Sidekick is totally reliant on the cloud because it doesn’t store its data locally. Microsoft acquired Danger for $500 million in February 2008.

Update:: There is some speculation that this was not actually caused by a server meltdown, but by Danger’s failure to make a backup before a Storage Area Network upgrade that was botched.

The full letter to customers is below.

T-MOBILE AND MICROSOFT/DANGER STATUS UPDATE ON SIDEKICK DATA DISRUPTION

Dear valued T-Mobile Sidekick customers:

T-Mobile and the Sidekick data services provider, Danger, a subsidiary of Microsoft, are reaching out to express our apologies regarding the recent Sidekick data service disruption. We appreciate your patience as Microsoft/Danger continues to work on maintaining platform stability, and restoring all services for our Sidekick customers.

Regrettably, based on Microsoft/Danger’s latest recovery assessment of their systems, we must now inform you that personal information stored on your device – such as contacts, calendar entries, to-do lists or photos – that is no longer on your Sidekick almost certainly has been lost as a result of a server failure at Microsoft/Danger. That said, our teams continue to work around-the-clock in hopes of discovering some way to recover this information. However, the likelihood of a successful outcome is extremely low. As such, we wanted to share this news with you and offer some tips and suggestions to help you rebuild your personal content. You can find these tips at the T-Mobile Sidekick Forums (http://www.t-mobile.com/sidekick ). We encourage you to visit the Forums on a regular basis to access the latest updates as well as FAQs regarding this service disruption.

In addition, we plan to communicate with you on Monday (Oct. 12) the status of the remaining issues caused by the service disruption, including the data recovery efforts and the Download Catalog restoration which we are continuing to resolve. We also will communicate any additional tips or suggestions that may help in restoring your content.

We recognize the magnitude of this inconvenience. Our primary efforts have been focused on restoring our customers’ personal content. We also are considering additional measures for those of you who have lost your content to help reinforce how valuable you are as a T-Mobile customer.

We continue to advise customers to NOT reset their device by removing the battery or letting their battery drain completely, as any personal content that currently resides on your device will be lost.

Once again, T-Mobile and Microsoft/Danger regret any and all inconvenience this matter has caused.

Happy Birthday to Lois!

Just a quick blog post to a friendly reader!!

Nobel Peace Prize

Congratulations to President Barack Obama on being only the third sitting U.S. President on winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

Wednesday's Word: Natter

nat·ter (ntr)
intr.v. nat·tered, nat·ter·ing, nat·ters
To talk idly; chatter.
[Variant of dialectal gnatter, to nibble, natter.]


after British & New Zealand informal
Verb
to talk idly and at length
Noun
a long idle chat [dialect gnatter to grumble, imitative]

Source: The Free Dictionary

Usage: See this video of Amy Winehouse

Changing Deck Chairs

An old Friend in my Facebook news feed just started a new cruise on a new ship. He's still at it.

It's been ten years since I gave up that career (Of ten years length). I was grateful to travel all that i did. And to have been around the world three times. It has broadened (this) one...

... But I wouldn't want to go back to that lifestyle. No Siree...

Fact is, I always hated the isolation of it all... But the money (as a headliner entertainer) was excellent, the accomodations and service sublime... And still, I wouldn't want it again...

In fact, I still have ship nightmares with great regularity... After all these years...

Now some sicko's want to re-trace the route of the Titanic...

# The Titanic Memorial Cruise is to set sail in April 2012, 100 years after the sinking
# It will depart from Southampton, England, on April 8, just as the Titanic did
# The trip will end in New York, where the Titanic was headed
# On April 15, the ship -- the Balmoral -- will arrive at the spot in the North Atlantic where the Titanic sank after it collided with an iceberg.
# Passengers on the 2012 cruise will take part in a memorial service at the site, according to organizer Miles Morgan Travel.

Is this a vacation?? ... Can you imagine?

Astrologically Speaking

Astrologically speaking, whenever Mercury is in Retrograde, all kinds of crazy things happen to electronic gadgetry...

Well, in the case of my T-Mobile Sidekick, it seems that Microsoft is adding software to the platform... And this may account for the rude cut-off of service for four days (and still counting)...

The FaceBook and Twitter Apps have been moved to a different folder... Hm.

And the Microsoft Search Engine, Bing, has been added, like it or not... EEEEEWWWWWW! That coulda been an option. And I may have chosen it... Now, I'm so p/o'd that I want to throw the whole damned device right out the window...

No data service since Thursday Night!?... And this is 5pm Monday!...

Meantime my Dell desktop 'puter at work has been on the fritz...

At least we pinpointed today that there's a leak in a capacitor in the Motherboard. Let's see how long it takes Dell to send a hardware geek to make the switch...

Well, I'm hopeful, that in the end, all will be new... And I'll be cookin wit grease...

I'm an optimist...

Sidekick Blues

Well, the entire T-Mobile Sidekick data network has been down since Thursday night...

No explanation... No nothing...

You'd think they would send out an explanatory email (to our non- T-Mobile accts) or a mass SMS or something...

Updates? Status? Nature of repairs? Estimated time of correction??

But, nooooo.

Ah well, I'll survive...

Though, I realize how many emails I actually answer from the mobile as opposed to the desktop...

And so the outage has put a definitive crimp in my communications since Thursday...

But... What can I do??...

Sandimation Saturday

Just too tired to blog today...

Been snoozing all afternoon... Though, I DO get points for doing a LOT of choring this morning...

Still much more to do, but I'm headed to the couch with the remote...

This YouTube has been around a while, and it's pretty great...

A Schticky Friday

TGIF!

Thirty Days Had September

Thirty days had September...

Now it's October!

Happy October!

I'm starting my October off with a fresh Apple Cider Doughnut this morning. 

These are what they sell in little baggies at the Apple orchard booths at the local Greenmarkets all around the city.

Fresh baked cinnamon and apple goodness!

I've never had them before a week ago... Now I'm addicted!

*Perfect* Autumnal treat!

P.S. It's a chilly morning to kick off October! That's *perfect*, too!